1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive interior component mounted to an interior side of a side wall panel of a vehicle such as a door trim or a rear side trim, and more particularly to an automotive interior component that increases energy absorbing performance in a side collision and reduces a load applied to an occupant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, various automotive interior components are mounted in a vehicle cabin, and a typical interior component is an automotive door trim mounted to a side wall panel of a vehicle.
A configuration of the automotive door trim will be described with reference to a front view of the door trim in FIG. 51 and a sectional view of the automotive door trim in FIG. 52. In the drawings, an automotive door trim 1 expands on an interior side, an arm rest 1a is formed to expand on the interior side so that an occupant can place his/her elbow thereon for rest, a door pocket 1b that can accommodate accessories is formed below the arm rest 1a, and a speaker grill 1c is formed on a front side of the arm rest 1a integrally with or separately from the door trim 1.
As shown in FIG. 52, the automotive door trim 1 is formed into a required shape and formed of a laminate of a resin core member 3 having a shape retention property and mounting rigidity to a door panel 2 and a surface skin 4 that is laminated on a front side of the resin core member 3 and has good surface texture and is pleasant to touch.
Further, an impact absorber 5 is secured to a back surface of the resin core member 3 of the door trim 1 in a so-called impact area portion that the waist or shoulder of the occupant is prone to touch when a lateral impact is applied to the vehicle.
The impact absorber 5 is formed of a hollow box body having an opening 5a on one side facing the door panel 2, and generally made of a resin material including polypropylene (PP) resin to which rubber ingredient is added and having high impact absorbing performance. Generally, a bottom surface wall 5b of the impact absorber 5 is bonded to the resin core member 3 with a hot melt adhesive or the like. In a side collision, an impact is applied to the opening 5a as shown by the arrow in the drawing. Reference numeral 5c denotes a side wall (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 9-142252 (pp. 4 and 5, FIGS. 7 to 9)).
As such, in the conventional door trim 1, the impact absorber 5 formed of the hollow box body is provided on the back surface of the resin core member 3 in the impact area that the waist or shoulder of the occupant is prone to touch. However, for impact absorbing performance of the conventional impact absorber 5, as shown in the graph in FIG. 13, a deformation stroke amount of bending deformation of the side wall 5c of the impact absorber 5 substantially linearly increases in proportion to a reaction force. Particularly, a reaction force in the latter half period during an impact load increases, and thus the reaction force in the latter half period during an impact load urgently needs to be reduced.
It is supposed that a factor for the increase in the reaction force in the latter half period during an impact load is that four corner portions of the bottom surface wall 5b have high rigidity in bending deformation of the side wall 5c of the impact absorber 5.
The present invention is achieved in view of such circumstances, and has an object to provide an automotive interior component mounted to a side wall panel of a vehicle, and particularly an automotive interior component that reduces a reaction force in the latter half period in a side collision to increase energy absorbing performance.
The present invention has another object to provide an automotive interior component that reduces a reaction force in the latter half period during an impact load, can expect an appropriate reaction force value even in the former half period during an impact load, and increases energy absorbing performance in both the former and latter half periods during an impact load.